Proponents of dropper posts have long touted the benefits of lowering your saddle — and thus your center of gravity — for descending. While common in mountain biking, dropper posts have been a harder sell in gravel, and virtually unheard of in road cycling. On Saturday, Matej Mohorič gave the lowly dropper post its best sales pitch ever for road racing when he dropped his saddle — and the very best cyclists in the world — on the technical descent off the Poggio and held off the chasers to win Milan-San Remo.
Mohorič used a Fox Transfer SL Performance Elite dropper post. This is Fox’s second-tier post, which is similar to the top-tier Transfer SL Factory post but has a black upper instead of a golden Kashima-coated upper.
Fox’s sister company Easton has basically the same post as the Transfer SL Factory called the Easton EA90 AX, which is currently teed up as a gravel product.
Fox and Easton spokesman Matt Hornland speculated that Mohorič used the Performance Elite Transfer model because it’s black and wouldn’t stick out visually as much as the Kashima-coated Factory post.
“I can’t say that we knew he was going to use the post in Milan-San Remo,” Hornland said, adding that he very much enjoyed watching Mohoric rail the Poggio descent.
On the mountain bike side, Fox is a partner with Merida, the bike sponsor for Mohorič’s Bahrain Victorious team. Mohorič raced a Merida Scultura Team at Milan-San Remo.
The Easton version of the Fox design has titanium bolts. “If he had used the Easton post, it would have saved him 10 grams,” Hornland said with a laugh. “The Easton post gets titanium bolts, ’cause we’re fancy like that.”
The top-end Fox dropper post has both Kashima coating and titanium bolts.
Both the Fox-branded and Easton-branded posts are relatively light, starting at 327g for the 50mm version, which is what looks like Mohorič used. There is also a 70mm version. To get more drop, a wider-diameter post is required instead of the road-standard 27.2mm.
For context, a carbon Easton seatpost weighs about 200g. The Merida Scultura Team has its own Merida Team SL post, which is probably around the same weight. All that to say, the dropper post added about 130g, or 0.3lb, to Mohorič’s bike.
The DOSS-style mechanical operation works with any cable lever. Pulling the lever releases the lock, so a rider’s weight can push the saddle into the down position, or, if it’s in the down position already, removing the body weight allows it to pop back up.
Mohorič had his lever mounted on the righthand drop of his handlebar, clamped down over the handlebar tape.
When the UCI banned the supertuck last April, there was some speculation that we would see some riders using dropper posts as a way to get lower and reduce their drag for fast descents, but that had yet to materialize. Mohorič was an early adopter of the supertuck position, using it en route to his world under-23 world road championship win in 2013.
Mohorič is not the first daredevil descender to use a dropper post in road racing. Vincenzo Nibali used a 20mm dropper post at the 2016 Tour de France. But Mohorič winning the longest Monument on the calendar in grand style on the Poggio descent with a dropper post? That’s one for the history books.
Look, Ma! I won with a dropper post!
Bahrain Victorious outfitted a Fox Transfer SL Performance Elite 27.2mm dropper post to Mahoric’s Merida Scultura Team.
The Fox dropper post has 50mm and 70mm drop options. This looks to be a 50mm model.
The spring-loaded Fox post can be activated with virtually any lever. Bahrain Victorious chose to use this simple lever clamped to his handlebar.
The lever was relatively subtle on his bike, with the cable routed through the frame.